dreamer

A fantastic weekend's racing

Brief summary:

Friday testing - wet, very slippery, but dried out by the end of the day. Couldn't get the laptimer working for most of the time, but the wet times were 1.11's which is pretty bloody slow! Had a few mechanical problems - a bad earth cut the engine after a couple of laps in the first session, and the exhaust fell off (Caterhams!!!!!!!) in another session, but our race series has a support team who are there for testing/racing, and they did a great job of fixing it quickly.

Saturday - testing in the morning which was bright and sunny, and I ended up doing 1.07's which is pretty slow Our pole/record is in the 1.04's and our grid is normally about 2 seconds spread out, so I should have been in the 1.06's. Ended the session feeling pretty demoralised and couldnt' understand why I was so slow.

Qualy in the afternoon, and I changed from my test tyres to my race tyres (which have now at the end of their racing life having done about 4 races + 4 qualy sessions and then 3 more sessions this weekend) and immediately gained 1 sec/lap. I think tightening up the rear of the car might have gained me more time, but this wasn't the time to be fettling!

Sunday - first race of the day at about 10.30, and then another race at about 3.30. The first race was 28 laps, which is the longest I've ever done - usually our races are about 20 minutes. There was a slight incident in the assembly area where someone drove into me, but the race was great fun - lots of overtaking and changing position, but over the last few laps my IACV failed (AGAIN!!) which means the rev's dont drop when you lift off, and if you depress the clutch the rev's rise without stopping. Not fun when you're braking from full speed in 4th to 1st gear for a hairpin!!! Great fun, fixed the car and raced in teh afternoon and had a brill race - one guy who is really difficult to get past ended up taking some grass and dropping right back which gave me a clear run to the chequered flag - actually quite difficult because I always drive slower if I don't have someone to chase, and I could see the rest of hte pack gaining on me, just hopin they'd wave the flag soon!

Hopefully will psot youtube link later when I've downloaded the in-car footage

End result - grid of 23 cars (including our top 15) and I finished in 14th for the second race having started on the grid in 17th. Really really happy

My tent and sleeping bags were lovely and snuggly warm despite the rain, and I'm really getting into the "paddock atmosphere" - I can recommend staying on circuit as long as you take ear plugs ;-)

And the trailer catastrophe? A blow-out on the M4 - I've never been so frightened in my whole life I don't think!!! Thankfully a fellow racer wasn't far behind me, and escorted me off the motorway and helped me fix it - really horrible ! Thumbs up to anybody who works on the motorways - the short time I spent out of the car (and in the car) there was terrifying!

MarkB

Sounds like a better weekend than recent ones. I always did well there too.

How'd you find Pembrey itself, it always feels like it ought to be a bigger circuit, Honda's a quick corner, as are Dibeni and Paddock, but the two hairpins always seem to get in the way.

And it's a PITA to get to.

dreamer

Facilities not exactly great, but it has toilets and a cafe (albeit one that's closed when you want to use it), and showers although I didn't use them (apparently they were useless).

The drive wasn't too bad - it is about 3 / 3.5 hours from home so no further than Oulton, but I got stuck in M4 traffic which made it longer, and the last few miles are a PITA full of speed cameras.

The circuit is quite fun, although shorter than it should be iyswim. You're having fun and then all of a sudden you're at the beginning again !

Honda is a fast corner, the proper hairpin (Hatchetts?) is ok and I love the wibbly wobbly s bit after that, but that other pseudo-hairpin is a pain - I never quite got that right!

They've increased some of the run off on the exits of corners which probably makes it a bit quicker? My best laps were in the 1.06's - our pole was in the 1.04's, but that's my norm this season (approx 2 secs off pole), which having looked at my vid was primarily due to my lack of use of the track (normal novice error) and a couple of dodgy lines. Plus lack of b*llocks and lifting too much! Will be addressing that

We did have one car o nits roof this weekend too, but that was bad luck I think!

MBK

Great write up Jo, I didn't get to see you racing sadly.

As a trackdayer (and therefore not really qualified to comment!) 1.06 is pretty quick from my perspective but it's all relative, I'm happy getting round in 1.11! Finding 2 seconds will still be a challenge and at Pembrey it probably means getting out on some of those concrete kerbs which are pretty bumpy (saw a Megane Britcar bounce on to it's roof through Dibeni doing exactly that). The second hairpin at Brooklands is a pain - what is the 'right' line through there?? Also I have seen quite a few racing incidents with cars getting pushed up onto the high kerbs. I remember Roger Green from evo magazine who was racing Westfields of some type telling me all the time at Pembrey was made up braking late into the 2 hairpins and the exit speed from Honda.

I know what you mean about being quicker when you have someone to chase - I always hope I'm going to find someone running about the same pace on trackdays, really makes the day more fun.

I look forward to the videos. (did they let you take cams on board they are usually funny about them for some unknown reason - I think they still dream they are a secret F1 test venue like in the 80's!)

Glad it didn't rain too much Pembrey seems to have it's own weather system.

Well done with the racing, takes some courage (not to mention time and cash!) to get involved!

dreamer

Shame you didn't make it

I was using some of the kerbs, but I can see from the footage I need to use more of the track, brake later and harder, get on the power sooner, and use more of the kerbs.

They're ok with you filming the racing if you get prior approval in writing, but we couldnt' video testing or the track day

BTW one of our guys ended up upside down at Dibeni (if that's the S type thing after Hatchetts) - he said the hardest thing was remembering where the killswitch was while he was upside down

Hopefully sort out video's tomorrow - need to learn how to use the Mac

martin j

Sounds like you're havin' fun.

MBK

Yeah sorry the mrs is pregnant so having to tread the emotional minefield at the mo! It's really difficult to get a race schedule for these events - not very spectator friendly at all it seems.

Dibeni is the double left sweep past the restaurant - it's often an incident site for cars and bikes. The right at Spitfires (before the double left) can also cause a few moments especially if the driver lifts mid corner, there is more run off on the rest of the circuit. I know from my flying days how important and difficult it is to remember which switches to press and where they are when you are upside down.

As for going quicker that all sounds right (then tbh what do I know!) but is more difficult to actually put in to practice no doubt.

I do know my way around editing software if I can help and Trackvision is well worth the money (

kartaphilos

Looking forward to the video's!

MarkB

The kerbs at Pembrey tend to be so high they knock a smaller car like a Seven way off line (I know from bitter experience, I was leading a race on the last lap, caught the kerb at Honda and ended up bouncing down the grass into 6th place across the line) - they're best avoided.

As your Evo guy said, I find the main time at Pembrey is gained through getting the lines right through the fast corners and the braking right for the hairpins (especially Hatchets, where most of my overtaking used to take place).
Brooklands is a very open hairpin, and should be treated as a 'normal' corner instead of a hairpin IME. The racing line is quite a wide entry, turn in just after the end of the service road IIRC and apex at the end of the kerbing on the inside. But there's also a second, tighter line which is good when you're in a car you're confident to trail brake in (the Exige is perfect for this) turning and braking at the same time and gradually tightening, then apexing at the same point, the end of the kerbing on the inside as the 'classic' line.

I'm so glad I made testing notes when I was racing - makes it easier to remember all this guff

dreamer

First video here..... my first attempt at using a Mac, so it's not very well edited!

Pembrey Race 1